The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-12-08
The Age of Aluminium.


the rich growing richer and the poo
growing poorer, it is well, now and then
to take the testimony Of elderly men VIII
remember the good old times before th
beginning of the changes now complain
ed of. At the semi.centennial of Michi
gan in 1856, there was present Massa
chusetts machinist, James Bartlett, Ions
resident in Detroit. who made an address
on the progress of machinery since Mich
igan became State in 1886. In ths
course of it he narrated his own expe
rience and that of his elder associates il
the machine shops of Massachusetts hal
a century ago. His own recollection'
went back forty-fve years, for he frs
began work in 1912, in machine shop
employing about fifty men on cotton ma
chinery for Lowell. he said:
"The wages of machinist in this shop
were 81 to sl.25 day; one nabob of s
pattern maker received the great sum oi
$1.5O. They went to work at 5 O'Clock
in the morning and worked till 73O at
night, with an hour for breakfast and
three quarters for dinner. 1t was several
years before ne obtained eleven hours 8
day. 1t has now been ten hours a day
for twenty-five years or more, and we
grumble at that, though we may get more
than twice the wages we did forty years
ago, and we are hoping to get the same
or higher pay for working eight hours.
l know the condition Of the machinist is
better than it was when I first Joined the
guild; he has better pay, better houses,
better education, better living, and [
hope he will keep on improving for the
next fifty years. Large machine shops
were started before 1886 ;pne in Lowell
employed over 1000 men on cotton ma.
chinery. Now the country is dotted with
them. For my part, ], don't want any
more of the good old times. The present
time is the best we have ever had, though
hope not the best we shall ever see. In
so years We have reduced our hours of
labor from IA to hours day; our
wages are doubled and the necessities of
life are much cheaper. A barrel ct salt
which cost $3.50 years ago has been sold
in Michigan for rs cents. The great
curse of drunkenness is very much dimin.
ished. We live in better houses, better
warmed and lighted, and we are better
clothed; a high school education is in
the reach of every child; books are free
to all; the poorest !aborer who meets
with an accident in our streets Will re-
ceive surgical aid that no king could
purchase fifty years ago. Our great
railroads distribute the fruits of labor 60
that famines are impossible. Beef killed
on the prairies is sent all over the country
and supplies the markets of Europe.
Fish from the salt seas and from our
great lakes are eaten fresh all over the
Continent, and tropical fruits are peddled
round all our streets"
For particular classes of persons there
has been a steady improvement, as is
shown, and in the country, as 9 whole
there is progress out of proportion to
poverty. But there is an increase in the
hopelessly poor class. There are more
rich Americans than in the old days, but
there are, also, more Americans who are
in the depths of misery and degradation.
and through no special fault of their
own.
The speculations of Mr.. Bartlett con.
cerning the future are almost startling in
their apparent boldnesa. He says:
~ see two things beginning to loom up
which may completely change our whole
system of manufacturing; aud the use Of
coal and iron may become thing of the
past The use of natural gas is in its
infancy; but in the iron aud glass works
of Pittsburg it has taken the place Of
10000 tons of coal day. If it should
be found inexhaustible; if, as some
claim, it comes from the decomposition Of
water by the internal heat of the earth,
and is thus liable to be found everywhere.
so that we can getour heat without lsbor,
! it would be the greatest step the world
has ever taken. Distributed through the
entire world, one.fourth of every clay
bank is composed of metal, (alumi-
num- ductile and malleablo in the
highest degree, indestructible by acids.
lighter than glass and much stronger
than steel. When first made it cost
many times its weight in gold. In 1875
it cost s64 pound; in 1854 it was fur
nished for 81 q pound, and now it can be
produced for 81. We may see the day
when it will be IS cheap as iron. If this
should happen, it would make more
change in the world than the use of steam
has made in fifty years. I prophesy thai
iity years hence the machinist who takes
up my subject and passes it along fol
another half century, will have for his
text natural gas and aluminium"
Who shall say that this will not be;
1t is not as astonishing as what has beer
accomplished with steam and electricity
1t is hard, nevertheless, to realize tha
there could be Pennsylvania withou
coal mining and pig iron. The clay
banks would take their place, under pro
essesinyented by enterprising American
1 probably Southerners-and iron be
come as useless as the flint arrow head
and stone chisels of our ancestors. Th'
world do move
Worth Dozen Sermons.
There is an eight.year old girl in uu